October Speaker Night: Kevin Swartz presents Eichler Homes in Sunnyvale
Monday, October 13, 2025, 7 pm at the museum
Did you know that the first Eichler home was built in Sunnyvale? – In 1949, Joseph Eichler and Robert Anshen tried a revolutionary new building style which greatly influenced mid-century architecture. They constructed one of the new Eichler homes, “Sunnyvale Manor I”, at East Maude and North Bay View, followed by thirty-six houses in the Sunnymount development. Typical style elements of this design include the extensive use of wood and glass, atria, and indoor-outdoor connection in the back of the house with little exposure to the street.
In total, Sunnyvale boasts 1,100 Eichler homes with a fascinating history, including multiple petitions from homeowners to the Sunnyvale City Council in the early 2000s to preserve Eichler neighborhoods and develop guidelines for remodels as well as keeping the neighborhoods free from two-story construction.
Learn about the inspiration for this new style of architecture and its enduring charm at our Speaker Night. The perfect person to present the history of Eichler homes in Sunnyvale, Kevin Swartz is the co-founder of Atria Real Estate which specializes in buying and selling Eichler homes.
Made in Sunnyvale
Now open
The fall exhibit will delight our visitors with unexpected treasures and snippets of local history. Most residents know that Lockheed, for instance, played a big role in town with their space exploration projects, but did you know that Sunnyvale boasted a company that produced potato chips? Everyone is aware of the long history of fruit production in the valley, but did you know there were also many dairy farms in North Sunnyvale? How about flower nurseries and a distillery, or companies which provided shoe polish, keys and locks, or even radios?
Visit the museum this fall to learn about all of these businesses and be amazed at how rich the production and agriculture business in Sunnyvale used to be and, in many cases, still is.
Trails to Rails - Sunnyvale 1840s to 1920s
October 25, 2025 11:00 am to 4:00
Trails to Rails – Will cover the story of Sunnyvale from early wagon trails 1840s to the advent of the railroad in the 1860s and up through the 1920s. There will be many booths from different organizations, activities for all ages, and fun for all.
Shows and Special guests – Free attendance
Note: Our amphitheater does not have shade. Don’t forget your hat, sunblock and refillable water bottle.
- “Old Greenwood” – portrayed by Frank X. Mullen, bringing one of the important scouts of the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy wagon train to life. Frank comes to us from Reno, NV where he is a journalist, author, historian, actor, and university instructor. Old Caleb Greenwood will tell us all about his life in the mountains and share stories of how he guided the first pioneer wagon party successfully across the Sierra Nevada. He will offer our visitors two show times.
- "California Bound” first visited us for our city's Centennial celebration and then for our museum's Anniversary event. We are thrilled to have them back. They will have their 'End of the Trail' camp set up on our lawn showing off their covered wagon and trail artifacts. They will tell you all about their adventures along their six-months-long journey as they moved West.
- History Expeditions Team. The museum is proud to have one of our own historians working with this incredible team of adventurous explorers and historians. The team will be sharing photos from their September trek that retraced the path of the “Horseback Party of Six” that left the S-T-M wagon train, with the intent to get more supplies and return to the party.
- Oregon-California Trail Association will offer exhibits that highlight the features of the Oregon-California routes.
- South Bay Historical Railroad Society - Learn more about the San Francisco – San José rail line and see an original map of the route. This group will certainly be able to tell you some great train history for the Santa Clara Valley.
- Bay Area Garden Railway Society - This group will be setting up a 20x40 foot track showing model steam engines rolling along as the steam puffs out from their smokestacks. You can look inside the trains to see real coal burning in the fire box.
- Golden State Toy Train Operators – Young train enthusiasts will have fun being model train operators at the GSTT exhibit.
- As this year marks the 175-year anniversary of California statehood, we will celebrate this event with a special booth that will show a timeline of special events that took place in CA during these many years.
- Also on stage, you will want to catch one of the shows by Portraits of the Past. This group tells us historical stories about characters from the past who made history in their day but may not be remembered in history books.
- Various musicians will provide Live music playing traditional Irish tunes, American classic favorites, and you won't want to miss our own strolling fiddler as she brings a sense of the period to our event.
- Don't forget to take the young ones to a special Storytime in our beautiful Mural Room of the museum for stories about traveling by wagon and fun train stories.
- Of course, you will want to check out the downstairs exhibits and you must stop in the Museum Store to explore the many unique items for sale.
- Mary and Martin Murphy Jr. will be strolling around the event, be sure to chat with them about the early days of Santa Clara Valley.
- Learn about the Murphy family at The Murphys' Roots and Rails booth.
Crafts and Games
Many activities are free. The ticketed items are indicated below. Ticket cost is $1.00
- Visitors will have the chance to print their own bookmark on a special tabletop printing press. What a fun way to remember this event.
- Make an old-fashioned Button Spinner toy. 1 Ticket
- Create your own personalized, boy or girl - no sew pioneer doll. The visitor can choose the outfit color, the hair color, and even choose some special accessories to make their doll come to life. 5 Tickets -- Accessories 1 Ticket
- Little hands, with a helper, can create a pioneer stick puppet or maybe two, for hours of more play. 1 Ticket
- Everyone will want to make their own train engine or wagon. After you have your transportation, you can set off on your own adventure. You can roll along the San Francisco to San José track or take your own cross-country journey on the Oregon-California Trail. 1 Ticket (game is free)
- Get into the pioneer spirit as you learn how to prepare wool for spinning. This event had a steady flow of participants at our last event, so we had to have this booth again. Come by and have some Fun with Wool.
- How can you celebrate the late 1840s if you don't do some Gold Panning? Always a fun activity, and always some special treasures to be discovered, including some real pay dirt! You may just find some real gold this year! Please be considerate of people waiting in line and limit your time to 20 mins. 2 Tickets
- And don't forget to play a few games in the lawn area.
Need Lunch? – Old Greenwood BBQ, located at Sunnyvale’s Sunken Gardens Golf Course, will have their truck at the event, so be sure to get some delicious BBQ to enjoy while taking in a show. Please limit your food consumption to the designated picnic area or the amphitheater.
Time Travelers' Book club
Join us for the next Time Travelers' Book club:
Sunday November 2, 2025, 2 - 4 pm, at the museum
The time period: 1960 - 1980. Bring a book that was written during that time, or takes place in it, fiction or non-fiction.
New Kitchen Item: Dough Box
Visitors will find a new item in the kitchen display at the museum: a "dough box" from the early 1800s. These were used in big households to prepare the dough for bread and other baked goods. All the ingredients were mixed and kneaded in the trough, then the lid was shut for the dough to proof. Once the dough had risen, the baker could form loaves and transfer them to the oven to bake.
We are grateful for the donation of this tool from Mary Chapman, a Sunnyvale resident whose family had kept it for several generations.
